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Here's What's New 
 Right now, you can get a subscription to Country Living Magazine for only $5.99 per year (12 issues) when you use coupon code MONEYSAVING at checkout. You can order up to three years at this price!
Country Living Magazine: Country Living Magazine is edited for readers who appreciate the traditions of the country, wherever they may live. Each issue of Country Living Magazine brings a country approach to a wide range of topics, from decorating, building, and restoring old homes to cooking, entertaining, gardening, travel and more.
This offer expires tonight 1/02/13 11:59 PM EST. Are you looking for other magazine titles? You can use coupon code MONEYSAVING to save 20% off of most titles at DiscountMags! (Note: The link in this post is my referral link. Read my disclosure policy here.) The post Country Living magazine subscription for $5.99 per year! appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.    Related Stories 
Guest post from Carissa of Pretty/Hungry I’m not sure what it was about this recipe that grabbed me as I thumbed through the hundreds in my Grandma’s recipe book. Maybe it was the odd name, Vinegar Pie. (Who ever heard of such a thing?) Or maybe it was the first ingredient listed: a quart of water! Could Grandma Montgomery be serious? How could this recipe produce an actual, edible pie? An edible puddle maybe… but surely not a pie. 
So in the hopes of resolving some of my confusion, I did what any respectable child of the internet-age would do… I posted a pic of the recipe to my Instagram account and asked people to enlighten me! And I was astonished to learn that this recipe was, in fact, legitimate. One friend even told me that she and her children had recently read in Little House in the Big Woods that Laura Ingalls’s “Ma” would make vinegar pies at Christmastime. They were a perfect dessert for poor farming families who didn’t have access to fancy ingredients like cream. Eggs, water, vinegar, and sugar were always on hand! That solidified it for me. I love the Little House books, so I had to find out what this pie would taste like! Besides, what did I have to lose? A few eggs and a quart of water weren’t going to break the bank if the recipe failed. So I tried out the recipe, and color me shocked when this humble method turned out one of the creamiest, most luscious custard pies I’d ever tried! In my opinion, it rivals any custard or cream pie I’ve tasted. And the maple flavoring makes it especially cozy for wintertime. Vinegar Pie is a dessert every money-saving mom should know about. You can make it when the cupboards are nearly bare! Here is a recipe with a little more explanation than dear Grandma Montgomery gave me in the little slip of paper above. I hope you enjoy making it and feeling like “Ma” Ingalls, one of our country’s earliest money-saving moms! 
Vinegar Maple Pies This classic recipe originated on the farms of the earliest American settlers. It uses simple, inexpensive ingredients to create an impossibly creamy & flavorful pie! Ingredients: - 1 quart water (or 3 cups, to shorten boiling time)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 heaping Tablespoons flour
- Pinch of salt
- 3 Tablespoons cold vinegar
- 1 teaspoon maple extract (If you don’t have maple extract vanilla, lemon, or coconut extract will also work)
- ¼ tsp. cinnamon
Directions: - Well ahead of time, prepare two pie dishes with a single crust pastry and pre-bake according to recipe instructions. Allow pie shells to fully cool.
- In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a boil.
- Meanwhile, combine the eggs, sugar, flour, salt, and vinegar in a mixing bowl and use a whisk to combine.
- Pour the filling mixture into the boiling water and continue to boil, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens. (6-12 minutes, depending on amount of water.)
- When mixture thickly coats the back of a spoon, remove from heat.
- Add in the cinnamon and maple extract and stir to combine.
- Pour mixture through a sieve into each pie crust to prevent any curdled egg from ending up in the finished pie.
- Refrigerate for 4+ hours (preferably overnight) before serving.
Do you make any old-fashioned, penny-pinching desserts? Carissa is a wife and mother of a sweet 1-year old girl. She loves the Lord, her family, and cooking! In recent years her family has made drastic cuts to their budget in order to start saving to build a home. Carissa blogs at Pretty/Hungry about all her kitchen creations!
The post Old-Fashioned Vinegar Pies (for pennies!) appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories
Many of Beth Moore’s ebooks are available free from different ebook retailers, though some retailers may have a larger selection than others. If you use a Kindle, Nook, or Apple iBooks, look below to see what’s available for your device. Books on Amazon: iBooks on iTunes Eight Free Beth Moore books are also available in the Barnes & Noble nook store are listed here as free. Make sure you sort the price from low to high to find the free books. Thanks, Coupon Cravings! The post More Free Beth Moore Books! appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories 
In 2013, I set very lofty reading goals. And I started out the year really strong and but then fizzled out as the months wore on. I love to read. I can’t not read. But I decided that choosing 48 books to read at the beginning of the year was too restrictive for me. You see, that list hung over my head the whole year. As I got further and further behind on my reading goals, I felt frustrated and guilty. This is ridiculous, I know, considering no one was making me read those 48 books… after all, I was the one who had set the goal. But I still felt a sense of guilt over it. And every time I’d read something not on the list, I’d remember that it wasn’t on the list and that I really should be reading THE LIST. {Just being honest here. Yes, I’m quite a crazy mess sometimes! :)} So this year? I’m changing things up and trying a different approach. I still set a big goal to read 150 books & ebooks in 2014, but I’m not going to plan out 48 books to read throughout the year. Instead, I’m going to take it on a month-by-month basis. At the beginning of the month, I’ll share my list of 12 books I plan to read that month and at the end of the month, I’ll share which books I read and a short recap of them. This way, I’m still being intentional about reading, but I’m not planning so far out in advance and can pick my list based upon topics I’m really interested in that month or based upon new books I’ve recently discovered that I really want to dive into. And I can also make the list longer or shorter depending upon what I know my schedule might be like that month. 
So here’s my list for January: 12 Books I Plan to Read in January 
I also am reading through the Bible using the plan in my Blessing Journal and reading one devotional from Jesus Today every day. 
4 Books I Plan to Read Aloud to My Kids What books are you planning to read in January? Leave a comment and let us know — and then you can come back at the end of January to tell us what you ended up reading and what you thought of the books you read! Coming tomorrow: My Top 10 Favorite Reads from 2013 The post My Reading Goals for 2014 + 12 Books I Plan to Read in January appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories 
Happy New Year! As I’ve been pondering what goals I want to have for 2014, one area I really want to focus on is my health. It’s easy to let our health take a back burner to everything else on our to-do list. But as I share in my new book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, I’ve experienced what happens when you put your health last… and it’s not pretty! With this in mind, I’m committed to making my health even more of a priority this year. And I’d love to have you join me for the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge. We’ll be focusing on one challenge area each month — all with the goal of being in a healthier place as a person by the end of next year. My hope is that as we work on instilling one new healthy habits each month, they won’t just be month-long challenges, but lifelong changes. 12 Months to a Healthier You Focus Areas for 2014 Here are the focus areas I’ve planned out for each month of 2014: January: Exercise Regularly
February: Eat More Fresh Fruits & Veggies
March: Drink More Water
April: Cut Back on Sugar
May: Get More Rest
June: Create a Morning Routine
July: Read More
August: Go to Bed Earlier
September: Declutter Your Home
October: Cut Back on Caffeine
November: Keep a Gratitude Journal
December: Simplify & Say No How This Challenge Will Work: At the beginning of the month, I’ll introduce the focus area and encourage you to set a small goal for that specific area and I’ll share my goals. Then, every Friday, I’ll have a check-in post where I’ll encourage you to share your progress & struggles and I’ll share mine, as well. If you want to blog about your progress, I’ll include a link-up at the end of the post so you can share your blog posts on this challenge. In addition to the Friday check-ins, I’ll also probably share a few posts and guest posts on the monthly topics each month, along with sharing about related books, resources, or websites that I’ve found helpful. Are you on social media? You can also share your progress on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter by using hashtag #12MonthstoaHealthierYou. 
My Exercise Goal for January My goal for January is to consistently exercise at least 5 times per week. I plan to follow the P90X workout schedule (I already knocked out Day 1 today!) except for the days when I’m traveling/out of town. On those days, I plan to stick with cardio/running. Will you be joining me for this 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge? If so, leave a comment letting us know you’re planning to join and what your exercise goals are for January. Remember to keep them simple and doable! The post Join Me for the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge! appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories  A testimony from Kim from ProteanMom.com
We are big fans of paying cash for items. We use a cash envelope system (though for larger envelopes we actually keep the cash in our savings account) and we use a spreadsheet to keep track of how much is in each specific envelope. We started using this system five years ago. And after we realized debt was going to limit our long term goals, we went to work on paying off our debt and changing our habits. We paid off each account and celebrated our financial successes along the way. After working tirelessly for eighteen months, we paid off everything but our mortgage. And just in time, too! Our first child was born and we were so excited. Because we were both committed to living debt free from then on, I was able to cut back my hours and stay home with our child. Now we were debt free, but we didn't have anything in savings. Our vehicles, while still reliable, were already 7 plus years old. We wanted to be financially prepared for potential malfunctions or to replace the vehicles when the time came. So we pretended we still had a car payment – only we paid our “car payment” into our savings account and kept track. When we began to seriously discuss having a second child, we realized we would have to replace my truck. We started researching cars and listed my truck for sale. We (thank the Lord!) managed to sell it for more than we had anticipated. That money went straight into the car envelope. After some time we looked at our spreadsheet and we realized that we had met our goal. So we kept an eye out on local ads for a used minivan and found one that had the features we wanted – and it was in our price range! 
We called up the seller (a small used car dealership) and took the van for a test drive. After it passed inspection, we went to the bank and withdrew our car payment money. The dealer was so excited to be paid in cash that he gave us a discount! All in all, it took us three years to save enough for our minivan. The discipline and happiness we have gotten from paying with cash has been worth every tear and penny. And our long term goals? They're happening! Kim is a wife, mother of two happy little boys, writer, family chef, and a whole lot more. She works in healthcare and blogs about finding fulfillment and better ways to serve in the variety of roles that life gives each of us at ProteanMom.com.
Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.
The post We Paid Cash: A Minivan! appeared first on Money Saving Mom®.  Related Stories | 
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